Christie’s to Shut N.Y., London Haunch of Venison Gallery

By Katya Kazakina -
Feb 2, 2013

Christie’s International said its
Haunch of Venison subsidiary will stop operating its two
galleries and representing artists in March.

The gallery in Chelsea, New York’s major contemporary art
hub, will close after its show, “How to Tell the Future from
the Past,” ends March 2. Its London space, known as the Yard,
will become a permanent exhibition and sales space for
Christie’s private sales department.

Haunch of Venison showed both emerging and established
artists such as Ahmed Alsoudani, Patricia Piccinini and Frank Stella, and curated exhibitions such as “Afro/Burri/Fontana”
in New York and “The Mystery of Appearance,” focusing on
Britain’s most important postwar painters, in London. In 2012,
New York hosted the first exhibition of new work by German
artist Gunther Uecker since the 1960s.

“The proposal is for Haunch of Venison to evolve into
Christie’s private sales,” Emilio Steinberger, the gallery’s
senior international director, said in a telephone interview
yesterday. “Private sales at Christie’s have been growing
exponentially and the decision was made that’s where the focus
should be.”

London-based Christie’s said last month that private sales
last year were 631.1 million pounds ($990 million), up 26
percent from the previous year. They represented 16 percent of
business in 2012.

The restructuring will “affect a number of employees at
Haunch of Venison, as well as some artists represented by the
gallery,” closely held Christie’s said in an e-mail last night.

Maximizing Profits

Christie’s spokesman Matthew Paton declined to confirm the
total number of Haunch of Venison employees. Steinberger said
there are 15 in New York.

The gallery was founded by art dealers Harry Blain and
Graham Southern in 2002, named after the London courtyard
(Haunch of Venison Yard) in which it was based. Christie’s
bought the gallery in 2007 and had branches in London, Berlin
and New York.

In 2010, the Berlin branch was closed. The same year, Blain
and Southern left to start a new gallery, BlainSouthern. Several
artists represented by Haunch of Venison, including Bill Viola,
Anton Henning and Matt Collishaw, left with the dealers.

Chelsea, Midtown

In New York, Haunch of Venison was initially housed at
Christie’s headquarters in midtown. In 2011, it moved to
Chelsea, taking over Yvon Lambert Gallery’s 6,000-square-foot
space on West 21st Street and hiring Selldorf Architects to
redesign it. Its former 20th and 21st floors space in midtown is
now used by Christie’s private sales group.

“At the end of the day, the auction house is about
maximizing profits,” said Todd Levin, director of Levin Art
Group in New York. “To work as a primary gallery representing
artists and estates is tremendously difficult. It’s a slow,
incremental development of a career over many years and
decades.”

The news was first reported by the Baer Faxt, an art market
newsletter.